In Dreams
by Every Shade of Blue
Summary: After Will has been captain of the Dutchman for a year, he has a dream that shows him what has been happening back at home, and he meets someone important. I am so bad at summaries. It's good, I promise.
1. Tired

****Disclaimer: If I owned Pirates of the Caribbean, this would be in it. Unfortunately, this is not in it. Therefore, I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean.

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**In Dreams**

Chapter 1: Tired

He was so tired. No, not just tired. Exhausted. Bone-weary, ready-to-drop exhausted. Will Turner was no stranger to hard work and long hours, but never, in all his years as a blacksmith, could he remember ever being so tired. On the Dutchman, the work was just never done; there were always more souls to ferry.

Over the course of the year that Will had spent on the ship so far, he had mastered the skill of the catnap: he could fall asleep at the drop of a hat, and wake up just as quickly, whether he had been out for an hour or only a minute. But sometimes it just wasn't enough. He needed sleep. Real sleep. An entire night of unbroken, peaceful, honest-to-goodness _sleep_. And he needed it _now_.

"Will? Are you all right?"

He could hear the voice, knew it was his father's, but he couldn't bring himself to answer. He knew he was standing on the Dutchman, but he was so lightheaded he couldn't even feel the deck under his feet. The ocean below was all he could see, the never-ending waves filling his vision, blurred and spinning dizzily before his eyes.

"Can you hear me, kid?"

His father's voice sounded strangely far away…

"Will!" Bill reached his son just in time to catch him as he swayed blearily, nearly collapsed.

Will blinked rapidly until his father's face swam into focus, glad that he was still steadying him, not trusting himself to remain standing on his own.

"You need sleep, kiddo."

Will shook his head, immediately regretting the action as waves of dizziness crashed over him.

"I can't."

"You can, and you will," Bill said bluntly. "Calypso will just have to accept the fact that she won't have a captain for much longer if you keep this up."

"But…"

"Don't even try it, kid." He gave Will a light shove in the direction of his cabin. "Go."

As much as he pretended to be annoyed, Will was honestly relieved as he stumbled into the cabin, letting the doors fall shut behind him, and collapsed onto his barely-used bed, relaxing with a quiet sigh.

Seconds later, he was fast asleep.

He was in a small, dimly lit room. It wasn't his cabin; he couldn't recall ever seeing it before. The first detail he was able to make out as his eyes adjusted was a bed with a woman sleeping on it. It was Elizabeth.

Breathing heavily, eyes bright with unshed tears, Will knelt next to the bed, drinking in the sight of her beautiful face, the face he missed more than anything else. He wanted so badly to wake her up so he could talk to her, hold her, kiss her, but he had a strange feeling that he wouldn't be able to wake her, even if he tried.

Gradually, he found that his gaze was being drawn to something back in the shadows on the opposite side on the bed. He was thoroughly shocked to realize that it was a cradle.

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Well, that's chapter one of my first multi-chapter fic. Chapter two is going to be super cute, but you only get it if you review!


	2. Father and Son

****Thank you to everyone who reviewed! As promised, here's chapter two.

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**In Dreams**

Chapter 2: Father and Son

He stared at it for a long moment, unmoving, as the meaning of what he was seeing slowly sank in. As far as he knew, there was only one reason why a woman would have a cradle next to her bed. If his heart had still been in his chest, it would have been pounding. Finally, only half aware of what he was doing, he got to his feet and very slowly approached the cradle. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he reached it and found a tiny baby boy sleeping inside. He felt as if he was likely to do both at once.

As he watched, the baby suddenly began to twist restlessly from side to side under his blankets. He squirmed, waving tiny fists – and then his lashes fluttered, and Will found himself staring down into two dark brown eyes perfectly identical to his own. The little boy whimpered softly, and Will heard Elizabeth stir slightly behind him. Instinctively, he reached down and scooped the baby up in his arms, mildly surprised to find that he could. The boy – whom Will suspected shared his name as well as his eyes – instantly calmed, making small noises of contentment as Will held him close, rocking back and forth in the way that comes naturally to anyone holding a baby.

Will stared down at the tiny, perfect person in his arms, filled with an overwhelming sadness, but still unable to take his eyes off of his child. It wasn't until one of the baby boy's tiny hands found Will's finger and wrapped tightly around it that Will started to cry, tears streaming silently down his cheeks. A thought that he had refused to allow himself to dwell on suddenly swam to the surface of his mind: _Ten years is such a long time…_

"I love you, Little One," he whispered softly around the hard lump in his throat.

To his surprise, as soon as the words were out of his mouth, his son looked up at him and smiled. Will would have laughed out loud if he hadn't been afraid of waking Elizabeth, forgetting that he couldn't. Instead, he settled for grinning broadly as the boy nestled comfortably against his chest, seemingly already accepting Will as one of the family.

As he gazed up at his father, the little boy's eye was caught by the faded green bandana around Will's head, and he stretched his arms up toward it, unable to reach it. With his free hand, Will tugged at the knot until it came undone, then slipped it off and handed it to his son, who gripped it clumsily in his tiny hands, waving it around happily, apparently very satisfied with this new toy.

Will smiled again as he watched him play with the bandana, already head-over-heels in love with the son he had only known for a few minutes. He began to whisper quietly to him, knowing that he was far too small to understand, but feeling an irrepressible urge to tell him things, to explain whatever he could to him in whatever time he had.

"You won't see me again after this, Little One, not for a long time. I wish…" He paused, blinking back fresh tears. "I wish I could stay here. I want to stay more than anything else. I want to live here with you and your mother, because you are the most important people in the world to me. You'll be nine years old by the time I see you again. I'm going to miss so much…" He swallowed hard. "A lot can happen in ten years. Ten years ago, I met your mother for the first time. I was just twelve years old, and I swear I was already in love with her. Can you believe that?" He couldn't hold back the tears anymore, and his voice dropped to the softest of whispers as the baby's eyelids began to droop. "I'll think about you every day. You have to do something for me, though. You have to look after your mother for me. Make sure she's happy." He looked longingly at Elizabeth. "Make sure she never stops smiling. I want to know she has someone here to make her smile, since – since I can't be." He looked back down at his son, and saw that he was nearly asleep. "I love you and your mother more than anyone and anything in the world."

As the boy drifted off to sleep, Will pressed a soft kiss to his tiny forehead and gently laid him back in his cradle, carefully tucking the blanket around him. Then he took a reluctant step back, knowing that he was looking at his infant son for the last time.

"Goodbye, Little One," he whispered painfully. Then he glanced at Elizabeth again, watched her sleeping peacefully, completely unaware that he had even been there. The urge to hold her in his arms and tell her how much he loved her was stronger than ever. He needed it, needed to at least just hear her say his name, just once – but he could feel himself being pulled away, the room beginning to fade from sight. So he settled for the only encouragement he could give, the hope that he had offered her at every moment of parting:

"Keep a weather eye on the horizon."

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I teared up when I wrote that. I hope you like it, even though he doesn't get to talk to Elizabeth. I wanted the main focus to be Will having a chance to meet his son.

Chapter three shall be forthcoming... but again, I'll be much more motivated if I get reviews :)


	3. Truth or Fiction

**In Dreams**

Chapter 3: Truth or Fiction

The sunlight was warm on Will's face as he stepped out onto the deck the next morning, yawning and stretching. He felt awake and refreshed, and more alive than he had in months. He wandered over to his father at the helm.

"Everything okay?"

Bill shrugged. "Calypso hasn't threatened to blast us out of the water because you took a break, if that's what you mean." He examined his son out of the corner of his eye. "You look good; certainly better than you did yesterday."

Will nodded, grinning slightly. "Yeah… I feel good." He absentmindedly ran his fingers through his loose curls, and Bill suddenly realized what was missing.

"Where's your bandana? I haven't seen you go a day without it yet."

Will looked slightly confused. "I don't know. It's just…" He trailed off, frowning slightly.

"Just what?"

Will had a rather faraway look in his eyes. "I had this dream…"

Elizabeth was wakened early by the sound of little William wiggling in his cradle, and chattering softly to himself in his quiet baby noises. She picked him up and kissed him on the forehead.

"An early riser, just like your father," she said with a smile. As she held the boy against her shoulder, she noticed something poking out from under his blanket. Tugging it out, she was surprised to find that it was a worn, faded – and familiar – green bandana.

Tears came to her eyes as she held it, suddenly frozen where she stood.

"_Will_…"

Squirming in her arms, William noticed what she was holding and immediately reached for it. And then, to her surprise, a bright smile lit up his entire face.

"I've never seen you smile before…" She watched him play with the bandana, perfectly content, and she could only think of one explanation. "You met your father last night, didn't you? I think I had a dream that he was here. Or maybe… maybe it wasn't a dream."

William smiled again, waving the bandana happily.

"You met your father last night, and you _smiled_ at him," Elizabeth whispered, laughing even as tears began to pour down her cheeks. "I thought he wouldn't get to meet you until you were nine, but…" She laughed again. "He was the first person you ever smiled at."

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Short chapter, I know, but I didn't need to put all that much in it. I've just always been really sad about how much Will would miss, like his son's first steps, first words, etc. So I decided to let him see his son's first smile. Leave me a review to let me know what you think!


	4. I Know You

Last chapter!

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**In Dreams**

Chapter 4: I Know You

_Nine Years Later_

"Don't you ever let go. Not ever," Elizabeth whispered forcefully, her voice slightly muffled because of how tightly she was pressed against her husband.

Will laughed. "I wasn't planning on it, love." He looked down at Elizabeth, gently tilted her face until her gaze met his. "I missed you so much," he said quietly, his voice thick with tears. "And I _love_ you. More than anything."

Tears swam in her eyes. "I love _you_," she answered softly. "More than anything."

And then a small voice broke into their reverie. "What about me?"

Elizabeth felt Will stiffen suddenly as his eyes widened.

"Was – was that…?" he asked so quietly she could barely hear him.

She smiled. "Why don't you turn around and see?"

Will hadn't even realized that his heart was once again ensconced in his chest until he felt it racing as he turned slowly on the spot to face the nine-year-old boy behind him. He dropped to his knees in order to be at eye level with him.

"It's been a long time since I saw you last."

William was staring at his father in something close to shock. "I – I know you!"

Elizabeth moved forward to stand next to Will. "What do you mean?" She sounded as confused as Will felt.

William looked excitedly back and forth between the two of them. "I've seen you before! I dream about you all the time! You're just sitting there talking to me… you always tell me that you want me to take care of Mama because you can't be here to, and you always say I should make sure she always has something to smile about. But… I was just dreaming. Wasn't I?"

Will suddenly found that he couldn't stop laughing. "That can't be possible. It _shouldn't_ be possible, but… I wasn't dreaming. And you weren't dreaming. I think – I think I really was here that night."

William smiled ecstatically. "So that really was you? You really said all those things to me?"

"Yeah," Will whispered, still completely amazed. "Yeah, I sure did."

It was the middle of the night when Will woke up and realized that he couldn't fall back asleep. There was no rocking motion, none of the gentle swaying that was ever-present on a ship, and it bothered him. On the Dutchman, his cure for insomnia had been going out on the deck and watching the stars. Deciding that going out on the beach had to be the next best thing, he slipped silently out of bed and crept out of the small house, pausing only to look in on his peacefully sleeping son for a brief moment.

Outside, he waded out into the water until the surf was splashing around his knees and closed his eyes, enjoying the breeze on his face.

"Captain Turner."

He didn't even need to turn to know that it was Calypso. As a matter of fact, he wasn't even startled.

"I did the job you gave me," he said quietly. "I ferried the souls of the dead for ten years. What more can you possibly want from me?"

"Nothing more. I was simply curious to know if you had discovered my… gift."

Will slowly turned to face her, instinctively knowing exactly what she was referring to. "I really did meet my son all those years ago. I fell asleep on the Dutchman, woke up here, met my son, and then I was on the Dutchman again. And on top of that… he remembers it. He was only a baby, but he remembers me. You did that, didn't you?"

Calypso smiled silently.

Will hadn't expected an answer, but he had to ask just one more question. "Why would you do that for me?"

Again, Calypso didn't answer, simply smiling again in silence. "Goodbye, Captain Turner." She immediately began to fade from sight.

"Calypso!" Will said suddenly, just before she vanished. Her image wavered, solidified briefly, watching him expectantly. He fumbled for words for a moment, before deciding at last that there was only one thing he could say.

"Thank you."

And then he was alone. Standing on the shore in the silvery moonlight, he looked up at the small house nestled among the trees above him. In that house were the woman he had loved for nineteen years, and the son he had fallen in love with at first sight nine years before. And that was when he knew that, in fact, he wasn't alone at all.

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And there's the end of my first multi-chapter fanfic! Okay, granted it was only four chapters and they were pretty short, but I'm proud. I feel so accomplished. Don't forget to tell me what you thought about it!

Update 6/16/12: Huge thanks to Smithy for pointing out that it's nine years later, not nine years and three months. I always mess up stuff like that. Numbers and I don't exactly see eye-to-eye.


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